Gary Sampson’s lawyers fell short, judge told

New attorneys for convicted killer Gary Lee Sampson continued arguing in federal court that the Abington native should get a new trial.On Tuesday, one of them told Judge Mark Wolf that Sampson’s original lawyers had an opportunity to interview a number of people who could have given jurors a more sympathetic view of Sampson’s troubled life.

As convicted killer Gary Lee Sampson awaits execution, attorneys in a federal courtroom continued arguing whether he should get a new trial to spare his life.

One of Sampson’s new attorneys, William McDaniels, told U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf Tuesday that Sampson’s original lawyers had an opportunity to interview a number of people who could have given jurors a more sympathetic view of Sampson’s troubled life.

“At least find out what they are going to say,” McDaniels said. “You have to investigate fully to reach a decision that is reasonable.”

The potential witnesses would have testified about Sampson’s sometimes strange and erratic behavior. They would have included fellow inmates at a New Hampshire state prison and people Sampson interacted with while living in North Carolina.

Sampson was on the lam after committing four North Carolina bank robberies when he murdered Philip McCloskey, 69, of Taunton and Jonathan Rizzo, 19, of Kingston in July 2001.

He called the FBI from an Abington pay phone and tried to surrender for the bank heists. After the call was cut off by an FBI employee, Sampson went on a six-day killing spree.

In 2003, following a lengthy trial, a federal jury decided that Sampson deserved the death penalty for the brutal carjack slayings of McCloskey and Rizzo.

Both McCloskey, a former Quincy resident, and Rizzo, a college student, were stabbed repeatedly and had their throats slit after being abducted.

The new attorneys for Sampson, a 50-year-old Abington native, are attempting to convince Judge Wolf that the original court-appointed defense team fell short. Among their assertions is that the defense team failed to fully explore head injuries that Sampson had suffered over the years – injuries that could explain his deadly actions.

Federal prosecutors maintain that there is no basis for setting aside Sampson’s death sentence.

Sampson confessed to killing McCloskey and Rizzo, and to driving to New Hampshire and strangling another man before surrendering to police.

He later offered to plead guilty in hopes of not having to face the death penalty, but prosecutors rejected the offer.

After Sampson admitted guilt in the Massachusetts murders, his trial lawyers argued that he suffered from bipolar disorder and a chemical imbalance in the brain that left him mentally unstable.

The First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had rejected a previous Sampson appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear arguments in that case.